You searched for: dual language immersion

“We recently moved to California from the east coast and took the opportunity to try a Spanish immersion program for our 7 and 4 year old daughters. I went to a bilingual school as a child, learning Spanish, and so wanted them to have that wonderful experience. The problem is our 7 year old, now in 2nd grade, has had only limited Spanish and is playing catch up. She is a fast learner and strong English reader with a goodRead More ...

“My son is in the third grade at a public language immersion school. He is at or above grade level in all subjects in English. He is below grade level in Spanish reading and comprehension. We are English speakers and try to work with him in his Spanish reading and comprehension but it is very difficult when we do not speak/comprehend Spanish. He refuses to read in Spanish for us. I don’t want to discourage his love of reading inRead More ...

Today we welcome our newest expert into the SpanglishBaby familia, Marcel O. Ponton, Ph.D. We are particularly excited for the incredible amount of knowledge he has on behavioral and development problems regarding bilinguals and because we finally have the male perspective on board! To submit your questions to Dr. Ponton and our panel of experts please go here. It’s amazing how fast and and how much of the Spanish language my almost 2 year old daughter Audrey is learning. WeRead More ...

Today’s Ask an Expert question was sent by James Ratner. “My wife is Vietnamese and bilingual (Vietnamese and English). I speak only English. We are teaching our son, who is presently 2 1/2 both Vietnamese and English, primarily by having my wife speak to him almost exclusively in Vietnamese and reinforcing his learning of this language through Vietnamese books and videos. This process seems to be going very well, as our son can now speak short sentences in both languages.Read More ...

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” — Mark Twain One of the main purposes of SpanglishBaby’s existence is to share with our readers the kind of useful information that can make the journey to raising bilingual children a bit less daunting. Education is not a new topic to this blog. We write about it often and, in fact, we’ve even dedicated a whole week to exploring the topic of bilingual education. If you’d like your childrenRead More ...

  As soon as we finished watching Speaking in Tongues, an inspiring documentary film which follows the journey of four children as they become bilingual while immersed in dual language programs, my husband turned to me and declared: “We have to do the same for Vanessa.” The award-winning film, produced and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, showcases the stories of four kids—and their families—from completely different backgrounds as they struggle and triumph at becomingRead More ...

Since I have made the deliberate decision to raise a trilingual baby so many realizations have blossomed especially as I near the end of my pregnancy. So, as a result, what did I do? I did what aspiring doctoral students do best: research about trilingualism and parenting. In fact, I found a way to combine this interest with one of my graduate courses and am in the process of creating an annotated bibliography about trilingualism, which I am more thanRead More ...